Now that our S4-5 are located safely and working towards SQA exams at Tynecastle, I am in a position to say more about arrangements for next week, including S1-3.

Firstly, I am pleased that we will be located in a school environment. Safety is my number one concern. The three school locations for S1-3 were confirmed with me on Friday morning once my risk- assessment on another non-school site that was being considered on Thursday was accepted as being unsuitable. Given that the new locations were only agreed on Friday, that left insufficient time to ensure the safe transfer of students, and to prepare for the relocation.

Please see the Council Website full details of the three schools we are relocating to, and the travel arrangements and times. The departure times depend upon the availability of the buses, and, given the huge numbers involved, we need a staggered start in order to ensure student safety.

Our Senior Team continue to plan over the weekend (and on Monday) to ensure we have a staff team and an adapted S1-3 curriculum in place for Wednesday morning. More updates will follow on Tuesday.

We are trying to ensure that we prioritise the needs of Senior Students for the SQA exams. This will involve moving staff with mainly S1-3 teaching commitments to each of the three new sites. The curriculum we offer will not be able to provide access to all subjects as we will be limited by the staffing, and the accommodation available. I am trying to access extra staff support from elsewhere for S1-3, as we will now be split across four sites.

Early on Tuesday the S1-3 staff teams will relocate to the other three schools and set up classrooms and prepare materials. We will also be organising transfer of materials from Craigmount on Tuesday as we continue to have some limited, supervised access.

I am currently in contact with the Head Teachers at the host schools to ensure we have classrooms, and other support for the Craigmount teams that will be based there. These teams will include a member of the Senior Team, Pupil Support staff and administrative staff.

Can I thank you once again for your understanding and support in this unprecedented situation. Things have been particularly challenging for Craigmount as we have had only limited access to the school, and by far the highest numbers of students to be relocated. This is why four separate sites are needed. Our efforts this week will be focussed on ensuring the relocations go as smoothly as the move to Tynecastle last week.